When You Dream
by Caiti Scarlett
Summary: An Ally/Larry romance. Sometimes you end up right back where you started.


Disclaimer: I don't own any Ally McBeal characters (Though I do wish I owned Robert Downey Jr. Ymmmm…) and this story is a complete work of fiction for enjoyment purposes only.

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When You Dream

~ Part I: A Belated Proposal ~

By Casidy

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Ally shot up in bed, her hair flying forward past her. Breathing hard, her head snapped to the side. Of course, her bed was empty. No Larry. It hadn't all been some terrible nightmare, she was all alone.

She tried to calm herself down but the soothing breaths she was taking were coming in short gasps and her choking tears weren't helping either.

How could she just let him walk out of her life? She loved him! With a note! He left her with a note! She hated him!

Her breathing was steadily slowing but the tears were increasing and each sob racked her tiny frame. She was not surprised when her bedroom door opened and someone walked through.

"Ally, baby, what's wrong?" Larry asked taking her into his arms.

Ally was confused momentarily but quickly put her arms around Larry's neck and pulled herself onto his lap. "I had a nightmare. You left me and went back to Detroit and I sniffed this guy's butt- I think it was Jon Bon Jovi." She tilted her head, pausing for a moment but quickly continued with her tale, "I bought a house and then this 10-year-old girl showed up claiming to be my daughter, and I started dating Jon Bon Jovi but that didn't work out because I still loved you. John became a singer at a Mexican restaurant and Richard made me a partner. Then my daughter- I think she was the little blond girl from _Remember the Titans_, anyway, she was taking after me and started having a nervous breakdown or something so we had to move to New York and then- then I woke up."

Larry had wrapped his arms around Ally and when she had finished her tale she buried her head in his shoulder and refused to let go of the vise grip around his neck.

"Pleases don't leave me Larry." She sobbed weakly into his chest.

He planted a kiss on the top of her head before rested his chin there, "I'm not goin' anywhere, babe. Do you have any idea what it would take for me to walk away? It's not gonna happen."

His words almost came as a surprise to himself. Just moments ago he had been sitting in the living room unable to take his eyes off the ring he had planned to give her that very night. Now he realized that he had been over thinking what had happened. He almost had himself convinced that the waiter's misdirection had been an omen. Now it took no thought for the truth to come out of his lips; he loved Ally and wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.

A proposal didn't have to be made into some big event. All that mattered was that he told her how he felt and she said yes. All he needed was a perfect moment. This was his perfect moment.

"Ally, I know that we're meant to be. Soul mates, true love, call it what you will, but I know this: right here, right now I love you and I can't imagine that ever changing. I once told you that I was only at the beginning of loving you and it's still true. Even if I were fortunate enough to love you for the rest of my life, I would still, only be at the beginning of loving you. Allyson McBeal, will you marry me?"

Ally had long since lifted her head from its place on Larry's shoulder and she sat staring at him in disbelief. At the end of his declaration her glazed eyes settled on the diamond ring that had seemingly materialized from nowhere.

"But, I thought you were going to break up with me." She said, her voice no more than a whisper.

"What?" Larry asked.

"Tonight, at the restaurant, you set up this whole romantic evening as if you were trying to bring back whatever you saw missing from our relationship. Then at the end you looked so disappointed, like it hadn't worked. I guess that's why my mind conjured up the whole dream, it was trying to figure out how I could live without you."

"I'm so sorry if I gave you that idea. All night I was planning on purposing. You know the lady next to us at dinner that got a ring in her cobbler? Well the waiter took the dessert to the wrong table. The cobbler, and ring, were meant for you" 

"You were going to purpose to me with a cobbler?" She exclaimed.

"I thought it was original?" he said, less as a statement and more asking if his excuse was a suitable one.

Ally just giggled happily, "Now, where's my ring?"

Larry didn't need to be asked twice. Taking her left hand in his he asked again, "Ally, marry me?"

Ally kissed him quickly before whispering, "Yes."

Without further adieu Larry slid the ring onto her finger, pushing her back on the bad at the same time. "So tell me Miss McBeal, how long have you had these fantasies about eighties hair bands and sniffing their butts?"

"That's Mrs. soon-to-be-Paul to you, and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The only butt I want to sniff is yours, Mr. Paul." 

Larry made a face but their conversation was soon forgotten for more important activities.


End file.
